The Mortal God

I

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus. Uncle Rick does.

Everyone sat down in the throne room of the original Mount Olympus. The war had ended and the gods thought it would be proper to hold an award ceremony there.

It was quite for the most part, no one really had anything to say, and if they did, they wouldn't be up to sharing it. The room was cold, and it froze. It froze the happiness, it froze the thoughts, and it even seemed to freeze the time, or so it felt as time moved along sluggishly.

The fighting might be over, but the war still rages on in their aching hearts and jumbled minds. The amount of unfathomable losses was to great for even a shadow of a smile to grace anyone's face. People moved about and talked almost in auto pilot.

It was much like any other award ceremony. The gods began to call a certain person or group. All went about accepting their gifts and sitting back down. All were still too depressed to enjoy their gifts just yet, or even appreciate them.

To most, it was like losing someone close to you, and getting a treat as compensation. It might be nice, but it wasn't what they needed, and this was much more true in the case of Perseus Jackson.

Percy had lost many very important people to him in the war. Only four of the seven managed to survive, including him of course. The survivors were: Percy, Piper, Hazel, and Leo. Thankfully, Nico and Thalia had managed to survive, barely though. Both of them lost an arm as they took one of the Giants spear in their hands and stabbed him with it. They hadn't expected for the spear to blow up though. Both were given a replacement for the lost limbs as part of their awards. Nico was given a skeletal arm made out of staygon steel, not at all helping his creepy and gloomy persona.

Thalia at least got something more useful. She was given an arm made of silver, but most importantly it had a foldable crossbow at the end.

However, like mentioned before, none were in a mood to appreciate these gifts. In many of their cases they had lost someone they cared about. In Percy's case, he had lost the person he loved undyingly, his Wise Girl.

Without her he wasn't the great Percy Jackson anymore, he certainly wasn't Seaweed Brain anymore. He wasn't the leader that brought hope and courage anymore. The war hadn't killed him, but he wished it had. The war hadn't destroyed him, but left him broken.

The broken young man was void of emotion or thought at the moment, until his name was called out by Zeus. "Perseus Jackson!" The god thundered.

Percy stood up and walked to the center of the room where he bowed before his father before kneeling in front of the king. He did it, though, in a way that seemed as if he was only going through the motions, like this was a daily task and he gave little mind for it. Like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. He knew exactly what to do, did it perfectly, and without a thought for it.

The gods had already discussed what they were to offer him. The first thing to come to mind was obviously godhood and a place among them. However, the proposition was soon shot down by Poseidon.

He rationalised that immortality is something the boy probably would hate. The boy probably would like to someday die, and reunited with his loved ones.

However, aside from immortality they couldn't find anything worth enough, or appropriate, to give him. Hades said a personal butler, an undead butler. Poseidon said he would be Prince of the Seas. Hephaestus said the greatest weapon he could muster. Athena suggested giving him knowledge. Apollo said a great voice would do. Aphrodite went for giving him charm speak. Zeus even offered to give him one of his daughters, but was soon reprimanded by Artemis and Athena who quickly explained how Perseus was not that sort of man.